MUSIC+SOUND AWARDS 2023 WINNER SPOTLIGHT

BEST SOUND DESIGN IN A SHORT FILM

The Storm Chaser

Sound Designer: Mark Hills at Factory Studios, London

Audio Producers: Sadie Poole + Beth Massey

Director: Jack Pirie

It was Mark Hills at Factory Studios who emerged victorious this year with his 2023’s Music+Sound Awards’ Best Sound Design in a Short Film Award for his sound on ‘The Storm Chaser’, a genre-blurring documentary about the profound encounters between humans and nature at its extremes.

Hills’ sound wasn’t just a component but a transformative force. Here he gives us an insight into the heart of his role on the project…

“Working on Storm Chaser was an absolute dream as a sound designer. From the moment I saw the treatment I was so excited to work on it and bring the sound to life.

There were four main components to the mix I needed to consider, the softly spoken narration of the main protagonist, the sounds of nature, the music and the mythical bird. I knew I wanted the sound design to be a prominent part of the story, but I had to be mindful that it didn't completely take over. I wanted the sounds of the storm and ocean to be huge, but still feel believable. I created the sounds of exaggerated thunder by taking the tails of distant thunder rolls and then heavily processing them. Emphasising the transients and heavily processing them with bass enhancements and limiting them to create interesting textures that added a huge amount of power to the sounds without them becoming too cinematic.

Using sound, we hint at the bird's presence without seeing it for the first 6 minutes of the film. It was important to ground the sound of the bird into nature so that early on the audience wasn't sure whether what they were hearing as a howling wind or something more. I used heavily processed Aztec death whistles as a key component in the sound design for the creature. These whistles gave a haunting and distant howl which could blend perfectly into the stormy soundscape. As the film progresses, the sound of the bird becomes more intense and it becomes apparent that the bird and the storm are one. The once subtle, distant howls are now close, loud screeches which trigger massive thunder strikes. As we reach the crescendo of the film, the bird is revealed in its full glory in an explosive entrance.

The overall mix of the film was a fantastic challenge. There are huge moments of sound design, a subtle score, and a softly spoken voiceover. In the surfing sequences, the sound of the ocean resembles something pretty close to white noise, so it was important to carefully balance these sounds to ensure the mix never felt overpowering or harsh to listen to. I approached the mix in a cinematic way, allowing for a very dynamic master - creating space for quiet moments really allowed the louder hits to punch through.”

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